CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Six banks, including BofA and Wells Fargo, have formed a real-time payments network that is open to all financial institutions.
“Our customers want the ability to make payments to anyone, in real-time, making funds instantly available in the recipient’s bank account,” said CEOs in a joint statement from the six banks, which include BB&T, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Capital One. “To achieve this, we are combining our collective, bank-owned digital payments network (clearXchange) with our fraud, risk and authentication assets (Early Warning), to further ensure that our customers can send money, confidently, securely, and in real-time via their financial institutions.”
Early Warning will acquire clearXchange, the largest bank-owned digital payments network in the United States. As part of the transaction, U.S. Bank and PNC are expected to join Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo as owners of Early Warning, pending completion of all applicable regulatory reviews, stated MarketWatch.
The complementary assets of the combined companies will bring unprecedented speed, security, and efficiency to U.S. payments, allowing financial institutions to meet consumers, businesses, and government customers’ demand for real-time payments, the banks stated.
The enhanced platform will be open to all banks and credit unions, of any size, and will help modernize and secure the U.S. payment system as envisioned by the Federal Reserve Bank’s Payment System Improvement Initiative, MarketWatch said. The platform’s capabilities will also meet the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s vision of consumer protection in new faster payment systems.
“The bank CEOs are providing leadership at a time when the industry is looking for guidance and customers’ expectations have rapidly evolved,” Paul Finch, CEO of Early Warning told the publication.
“With this acquisition, Early Warning is bringing together immediate funds availability, integrated authentication and fraud management capabilities into a single platform. The resulting security, reliability and consistency among financial institution payment services will provide a required catalyst to advance real-time payments,” added Finch.